Roger Federer's 100 titles: 50 facts on Federer at the US Open

By Ashley Marshall / Saturday, March 02, 2019

Roger Federer reached 100 career titles in Dubai on Saturday, but he has also given fans in the Big Apple plenty to cheer about over the past two decades. From a deep dive into the record books, stats cards and scoresheets, here are 50 Federer facts about his US Open career.

1. Federer has won five US Open men’s singles titles, tied for fourth all-time among male players and tied with Pete Sampras and Jimmy Connors for the most in the Open era.

2. No player, man or woman, has won five consecutive championships in New York in the Open era other than Federer, who did so between 2004-08. Chris Evert was closest, with four between 1975-78.

3. Federer owns a career 85-13 record in 18 trips to New York. He trails only Jimmy Connors (98) in men’s singles matches won at the US Open.

4. Federer has played 76 different players in the main draw of the US Open, including 16 players multiple times. He’s faced Novak Djokovic six times (3-3), as well as Lleyton Hewitt (3-0) and Andre Agassi (2-1) three times each.

5. The only player Federer has played multiples times and never beaten is Juan Martin del Potro. He lost to the Argentine in the 2009 final and the 2017 quarterfinals. Only one other player has defeated Federer multiple times at the US Open: Djokovic in 2010, 2011 and 2015.

6. Federer has played 19,839 points at the US Open, winning 10,934 of them. That means that one of the greatest players of all time has lost almost 45 percent of the points he’s ever played in New York.

7. The longest game Federer has played in terms of number of points was an epic 26-point, 12-minute game against James Blake at the 2003 US Open. With Federer leading one-set-to-love and the second set on serve at 1-1, Blake saved eight break points in a 10-deuce game to earn a hard-fought hold. Nonetheless, Blake went on to drop the set in a tiebreak en route to losing the match in straight sets. Federer’s 20 unconverted break points fall short of the record set by Cedric Pioline, who was 7-for-35 in a four-set win over Andrei Medvedev at the 1993 US Open. The ATP kept tracking such stats from 1991.

8. The Swiss has won more US Open titles (five) than he has lost matches in straight sets (four) at Flushing Meadows.

9. Federer’s first-ever main-draw match at the US Open was against Peter Wessels of Germany on Court 7. Federer lost the first two sets and was down 4-3 in the fifth, when Wessels was forced to retire.

10. Federer has won 63 matches in straight sets and in total has won 297 of the 345 sets he’s ever played in New York, good for an 86-percent mark.

11. Federer has spent 205 hours, 11 minutes on court at the US Open, an average of two hours, five minutes per match. That works out to more than eight full days, enough time to make four roundtrip flights from New York City to Melbourne, watch the entire "Lord of the Rings" trilogy 22 times or listen to Drake’s “In My Feelings” 3,403 times on a loop.

12. Federer has dominated in New York, in large part behind his strong service game. On serve, Federer has won 1,460 of his 1,649 service games, or 88.5 percent.

13. When Federer is serving, he has won 78.2 percent of points on his first serve and 56.7 percent on his second serve. He has won a higher percentage of first-serve points on the deuce side (79.6 percent) than the ad side (76.5 percent), but he’s won a slightly higher percentage of second-serve points on the ad side (57.7 percent) than the deuce side (55.8 percent).

14. Federer has played 84 of his 98 matches inside Arthur Ashe Stadium, eight in the old Louis Armstrong Stadium and one in the old Grandstand. The other five? Two in each of Court 11 and Court 7 and one in Court 10. Federer has never lost playing in the old Grandstand, Court 10 or Court 11.

15. Federer’s field-court matches came against: Max Mirnyi on Court 7 in a fourth-round loss in 2002; against Jiri Vanek on Court 10 in a 2002 first-round win; against Lars Burgsmuller on Court 11 in a 2001 first-round, win; against Wessels on Court 7 in a 2000 first-round win; and against Daniel Nestor on Court 11 in 2000 during a second-round win.

16. Federer is a great front-runner. He’s only lost five service games in 18 years when he has a 40-0 lead, and he has been broken just 21 times in 789 service games when he’s up 30-0. In the 300 Federer service games that went to deuce, he won 248 and lost 52.

17. Federer has hit four aces in one service game just three times in 98 matches: In the second set of a first-round match against Scoville Jenkins in 2007; in the fourth set of his 2008 semifinal against Djokovic; and in the second set against Juan Monaco in the 2011 fourth round. That match against Monaco is the only time Federer has won a game with four consecutive aces.

18. In total, Federer has hit 1,067 aces at the US Open: 300 in the opening set, 319 in the second, 335 in the third, 97 in the fourth and 16 in the fifth.

19. The Swiss has hit 606 aces (56.8 percent) on the deuce side and 461 (41.2 percent) on the ad side.

20. Federer has hit 265 double faults at the US Open, including 79 in the opening sets of matches, his highest total in any set. He has hit 148 double faults (55.2 percent) on the deuce side and 117 (44.8 percent) on the ad side.

21. In 411 games in which Federer was returning and got to deuce, the five-time champion won 140 games and lost 271.

22. In non-tiebreak games, Federer plays an average of 5.78 points per game. On his opponent’s serve, Federer plays an average of 6.40 points per game.

23. In the five years that Federer won five consecutive championships, he hit 363 aces to 67 doubles faults.

24. Federer overturned a two-set deficit at the 2014 US Open, when he rallied to beat Gael Monfils, 4-6, 3-6, 6-4, 7-5, 6-2. It’s the only time he’s won a match in New York after losing the opening two sets.

25. Federer has hit 29 second-serve aces at the US Open, including four against Andy Roddick in the 2007 quarterfinals.

26. In 2010, Federer recorded an ace in 12 consecutive games against Brian Dabul. In 2008, against qualifier Thiago Alves, Federer recorded at least one ace in 11 straight service games.

27. Federer hit at least one double fault in each of his first 25 US Open matches, a streak that was snapped against David Nalbandian in the 2005 quarterfinals.

28. Federer has played 43 tiebreaks at the US Open. He has won two tiebreaks 7-0—against John Isner in their fourth-round match in 2015 and against Lleyton Hewitt in the 2005 semifinals. He has a 25-18 record in tiebreaks.

29. In the first set of a 2003 first-round match against Jose Acasuso, Federer made 25 consecutive first serves.

30. Federer has played a night match on the opening day of the US Open four times, in consecutive years from 2010-13. He played inside Arthur Ashe Stadium on the first day of the tournament three other times, in 2004, 2007 and 2009.

31. In the 2004 final, Federer won 22 of 27 points against Hewitt in an 18-minute first set.

32. In his 2007 fourth-round win over Feliciano Lopez, Federer won 35 consecutive points on serve, which included seven straight service holds to love.

33. Between 2004-08, when Federer won 34 consecutive matches and five straight US Open titles, he won 56.1 percent of all points played.

34. Federer has held serve to love 392 times. He has lost a service game to love 24 times.

35. Opponents have served 1,561 games against Federer. Federer has broken 469 times, including to love 52 times.

36. Federer has won 41.2 percent of points on the opponent’s serve, including more than half of all the points he has played when receiving a second serve.

37. Federer has converted 42.4 percent of all break points (453 of 1,068) and broken in 72.8 percent of the 622 games in which he’s had at least one break point.

38. Federer broke opponents 23 times to win matches. Of the other 446 games, Federer held serve in his very next service game 408 times (91.5 percent).

39. Federer has broken more often in the third set of a match (150 times) than in the second set (142 times) and in the first set (132 times). He’s also broken 37 times in the fourth set and nine times in the fifth set.

40. In 18 years competing at the US Open, Federer has only failed to break an opponent twice—in a 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 loss to No. 2 seed Andre Agassi in the 2001 fourth round and in a 6-3, 7-6, 6-4 loss to Max Mirnyi in the fourth round the following year. That means he has broken at least once in his past 87 US Open matches.

41. Federer held in 51 consecutive service games at the 2015 US Open, before losing his serve in the second service game of the final against Djokovic.

42. Thirty-two different umpires have chaired a Federer match at the US Open, including 20 who have done so more than once. Leading the way are Enric Molina, Pascal Maria and Jake Garner, who have each sat in the chair for his matches nine times. Carlos Bernardes is the only person to be in the chair for multiple Federer finals victories (2006 and 2008).

43. The Maestro has won 53 percent of coin tosses at the US Open. He’s elected to serve 39 times, receive 14 times and choose sides once (against Djokovic in the 2008 semifinals).

44. Federer has lost just once to an unseeded player at the US Open—in his fourth-round loss to world No. 55 John Millman at the 2018 US Open. Nine of his previous 12 losses had been to players seeded 14 or higher, with the other three players seeded No. 19 (Tommy Robredo), No. 26 (del Potro) and No. 32 (Max Mirnyi).

45. Federer’s past 22 matches, and 65 of his past 66 matches, have been played inside Arthur Ashe Stadium. Only once in the past decade has he played on a court other than the US Open’s No. 1 stadium: In 2013, he lost to Robredo in straight sets in Louis Armstrong Stadium after rain caused a backlog in the tournament schedule and forced his match to be moved from Ashe. Prior to that, Federer’s last match in Armstrong was a 2006 fourth-round win over Marc Gicquel.

47. Federer has played more matches (84) and won more matches (74) inside Arthur Ashe Stadium than any other male player in history. His .881 winning percentage (74-10) is the best all-time among men and second-best among all players who have played in the stadium at least 10 times (Serena Williams is 90-12, .882 percent). Only the Williams sisters have ever played more night matches inside Ashe than Federer, who has been part of the evening session 38 times. He’s 35-3 in those matches.

48. According to the umpire scorecards, Federer has never received a single time violation at the US Open.

49. The most aces Federer has hit at one US Open is 88 in 2009, a year he didn’t win the title. Federer hit the most aces in the tournament on two other occasions: in 2007 (75, won the title), and in 2010 (86, lost in the semifinals). Pete Sampras holds the all-time record with 144 in 2002.

50. Federer has played in more Grand Slam singles competitions than any male player in history. He currently stands at 75, six more than the next-highest ranked active player, Feliciano Lopez. Should Federer reach the second round of the US Open this year, he’ll become the first player in history to play 100 main-draw singles matches at three different Slams.

[This story was originally published on Aug. 28, 2018, and has been updated to reflect his performance at the 2018 US Open.]